Appeals court upholds Nashville schools' rezoning plan

Ruling notes more segregation in plan for schools but finds it wasn't intentional

4:25 AM,
May 11, 2013

Frances Spurlock sits with her attorney, Larry Woods, during a news conference in 2009. Woods and attorney Walter Searcy filed the original lawsuit on behalf of parents Jeffrey and Frances Spurlock against Metro Public Schools.

Written by

Joey Garrison
| The Tennessean

A federal appeals court has upheld a judge's prior finding that Metro Nashville Public Schools' controversial student assignment plan did not represent deliberate racial resegregation, though it stopped far short of calling the plan a success.

The opinion, issued Friday by the U.S.Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, reaffirmed U.S. District Judge Kevin Sharp's ruling last summer, agreeing that the rezoning plan - one the school board approved by a contentious 5-4 vote in 2008 - did not have a "segregative intent" and passes constitutional muster even though it led to more racially ...